Yesterday we told you that the Ottawa Senators were about to panic and make wholesale changes to their line-up, including putting Jason Spezza between two pluggers — Jarkko Ruutu and Chris Neil. Well the move didn’t work, as the Sens were trounced by New Jersey, 5-1, as Ken Warren reports in the Ottawa Citizen.

MK: Something tells me that if it comes to scratching Spezza, head coach Craig Hartsburg will completely lose credibility with this team and GM Bryan Murray will have no choice but to axe his coach and take the reins for the second straight year. Then it could be Murray leaving come summer, with a possible total roster shake-up to follow.